2017 highlights

it has been one of the greatest and most difficult years of my life. I learned everything is temporary. moments. feelings. people. flowers. I learned love is about giving. everything. and letting it hurt. i learned that vulnerability is always the right choice because it is easy to be cold in a world that makes it so difficult to remain soft. i learned all things come in twos. life and death. pain and joy. salt and sugar. me and you. it is the balance of the universe. it has been the year of hurting so bad but living so good. making friends out of strangers. making strangers out of friends. learned mint chocolate chip ice-cream will fix just about everything. and for the pains it can't there will always be my mothers arms. we must learn to focus on warm energy. always. soak our limbs in it and become better lovers to the world. for if we can't learn to be kinder to each other how will we ever learn to be kinder to the most desperate parts of ourselves.
- rupi kaur

It started on Krizanke square here in Ljubljana, with dancing and singing while drinking from a bottle (spoiler alert, that's how it ended).
And then after all the festive fun, big sales and compulsive shopping it was time for the January exams. That we (me and Lara) managed to survive. Somehow.
In February I packed my bags and went off. Home. To Macedonia. 
With Elena we went on our annual Thessaloniki shopping trip. And we didn't go to Starbucks this time, instead, she did her research & we found the cutest local cafes.
Shh someone in Ljubljana realized that they can't live their life without me and missed me like a lot, a lot. Back to my normal Ljubljana life. March started with the best job ever, for one weekend we (me&Lara) were hostesses for the Audi team in Kranjska Gora. And you're probably wondering what is this random information doing in my 2017 highlights, cuz it doesn't sound like a big deal. But it was an unforgettable working weekend for us.

And then, all of a sudden I ended up in Paris. Kinda spent my birthday week wandering around Montmartre, drinking vanilla tea on Champs-Élysées & stealing postcards alone, because Lara got sick. I'll never forget the night before I turned 19, when I went to Louvre alone, and just sat for an hour while watching the world go by. My thoughts were interrupted by a running boy that randomly waved at me shouting 'hey belle'. Still unbelievable.

When we came back, my father came to visit and it was time for Mercedes Benz Fashion week. But before we even managed to post all the Paris photos, Lara ended up in the hospital. I knew that she needed all the flowers and the love in the world to stay strong. Because I couldn't give her all of that, I had something else in mind, the best 'turska serija' to keep her thoughts away from everything that was happening. Binge watching it was. Hospital and 'turska serija' - that was April for me. 

On the First of May we went off again on a short trip to Krk, Croatia. The sun and the sea reminded me how much I missed summer. 
And then I got a visit from one of my best friends, Verica. While partying we may have accidentally managed to break my old phone. And that's when the Iphone saga of my life began (a very important part of the story).
Ohh and I was on the pages of Cosmopolitan Slovenija. Who would have thought?
At the end of May, we were off to a new adventure. This time, our destination was well known to me, but for Lara it was a whole new world. Called Macedonia. Getting to know all my friends, my family and my alter ego - the Macedonian drama queen Marija wasn't easy. The purpose of our trip was called 'Anastasijina matura'. She looked gorgeous, but all I can say is that the few days that we spent there were filled with D R A M A. 

Ljubljana was waiting for us with the warmest sun and a lot of 'kava z mlekom'. We were back on track. 
from one coffee to another, from brunch to going out, from short excursions to the seaside, to studying on pools and exams on the hottest days. We mixed that all together.
If someone gives me a time machine with the ability to travel in time, I would definitely go back to our careless June days. Ohh those were the times.  
Another Ljubljana companion joined the story, I bought my bike, Furiosa. 
And my mother came to visit in the most chaotic period, we went home together and the summer officially started for me. 

I already wrote my whole summer story in two posts, so click HERE to read the first one and HERE for the second one. 
July, August and September - all I can say is D R A M A part 2, Skopje, Struga, Skopje, Rome, Skopje, Struga, Skopje, Struga, Skopje, Ljubljana, Rovinj, Pula, Ljubljana. 

Miss second year was ready for the second year of college. 
One of my best friends 'Anastasija' moved to Ljubljana, sudden changes happened and I got no free trial for adjustment. 
Lara knows my heart, and her words perfectly described my October and November in the story time post from our trip to Trieste. 

"Marija didn't care for many things in her life, well actually you could say she was ignorant at times. But she cared deeply for two things, her friends, and her work. And this trip offered a chance to combine those two. The last two months were stressful, to say the least. Her *khm* many lives were suddenly crashing and combining with such speed, even she didn't know what to make of it. Ignorant on the outside, but very much vulnerable on the inside, she was struggling to keep her s**t together. Life as such didn't seem to bother her, Marija has always successfully handled it, but all the people she cared about so very much suddenly connecting, well that was something none of us could ever predict. How in the world was she supposed to balance the wishes of so many people, old and new, dear and near, here and far? She knew she was the backbone of many people, even if those people didn't really appreciate it, or even knew it. Marija's main profession was being a friend. And boy was she used to succeed when trying to be a good friend.  

Her colorful personality, which stretched all the way from Severina to Darko Rundek, was prepared to take on whatever life had planned for her. She was in charge and a spontaneous trip was just the proof she needed."

November ended with another unforgettable working weekend for me & Lara. This time we were volunteering on the one of the biggest media trends conferences 'Sempl' in Portoroz. And we had the best time, once again. While working, a spontaneous plan was made, we all needed a break and a new adventure, so they say Paris is always a good idea. The deal was made, the plane tickets were booked. 

For a change I am going to use 'WE' for the four of us. Me, Lara, Vita and Lan. 
December started with the 'prizig luck' in Ljubljana, as I started counting days to my second time in Paris this year.  
Excited, scared and nervous at the same time. We all knew each other well, because we were all 'sosolci', but traveling is another story where you meet people from a different perspective. Sometimes all the location hunting, makeup and photo shootings while traveling are too much for me too. Honestly, I was a bit skeptic about how are they going to accept that side of us. And I am so happy that they did, without a word said. We became Lan's 'girils' and Vita's Gucci gang. I am going to write a lot about Paris in all the Parisian posts. For now, all you have to know is that we had the best time ever. 

Writing just about the happy moments of 2017 doesn't mean that there weren't days that getting out of bed was the hardest task and that there weren't nights spent in tears and daily mental breakdowns shared with my friends & my therapist Evgenija. Always online, even from Moscow, for listening my pointless drama all over again. But I went through it. And I am glad that I am writing about the nice memories because they are the ones that highlighted my year.
It was a long post and congrats on making it till the end. 
*I may have dropped a few tears while writing this*